


A Call to Arms

by lucidscreamer



Series: Death on the Nile [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - 19th Century, Alternate Universe - Jewish, Dysfunctional Family, Family Drama, Gen, Mystery, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Yugi's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-14 22:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13599429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: Yami missing stop fear the worst stop come immediately stop will wire fare for passage to Egypt stop further instructions await at AlexandriaWhen Yugi receives a cablegram from his grandfather saying that Yami is in trouble, Yugi races to Egypt to help in any way that he can.





	A Call to Arms

_Domino City, New Jersey (USA)_

_November, 1887_

 

Yugi held the cablegram tightly in one hand as he sat and thought about his grandfather, from whom the cablegram had come. Before the message had arrived, Yugi had (to his shame) been planning to once again postpone his tentatively scheduled visit to his grandfather's home in Egypt. Although he only worked on his archaeological digs in the winter when the temperatures were more conducive to outdoor labor, Solomon Mutou had lived in Egypt year-round for as long as Yugi could remember.

Yugi had visited his grandfather frequently as a child, or at least as frequently as his father would allow. Esau Mutou's unhappiness with his father's decision to adopt a nameless boy that he had found wandering in the desert had driven a wedge between father and son. As Yugi grew older, his father had not forbidden him from maintaining contact with Grandpa Solomon. He hadn't needed to; Esau simply never hesitated to make his displeasure known when such contact took place, and so Yugi had begun to withdraw from those happy winters spent digging in the desert with Grandpa Solomon, Grandma Chane, and Yami.

While Yugi had chosen to curtail his visits, he had not cut his extended family completely out of his life. He exchanged long, chatty letters with both grandparents and his adopted uncle. In an effort to keep the simmering tensions in the family from igniting into open argument once more, Yugi's mother conspired with him to keep his correspondence from his father's notice. The letters came infrequently due to the long distances they had to travel from Egypt to the United States, each one usually composed of enough pages for a small book and written over a period of weeks or months before being bundled up in brown paper and posted as a package rather than a letter. Real packages were less frequent, though not unheard of, particularly at Hannukah and on birthdays. But there had never been the kind of urgency that would require a swifter type of correspondence.

So, it was with both surprise and trepidation that Yugi received his grandfather's cablegram that morning. A feeling of dread swept over him, raising the hair on his arms and settling like a lead weight in his stomach. He stood frozen on his doorstep, clutching the thin missive and trying not to think the worst. Unfortunately, when he read it, the contents of the cablegram had done nothing to reassure him.

Yugi staggered back into the kitchen and sank down at the table, the cablegram crushed in one hand. His mind was spinning and the only thing that kept him from calling out to his mother was that his father had yet to leave for the office -- and if there was one thing about this situation that Yugi could feel grateful for, it was that his father had not been there to witness the delivery of the cablegram. There would be a big enough explosion when Esau Mutou found out that his son was planning to drop everything and head for Egypt despite all of Esau's not-so-subtle manuevering to ensure otherwise.

Forcing his hand open, Yugi smoothed out the crumpled yellow paper and read the message again.

　

> Yami missing stop fear the worst stop come immediately stop will wire fare for passage to Egypt stop further instructions await at Alexandria

 

Grandpa might be given to the occasional flight of fancy when it came to his historical theorizing, but he was not the kind to worry his family when there was no real cause. If Grandpa thought that Yami was in trouble, then there was no doubt in Yugi's mind that it was true. And if Yugi might possibly, in whatever small way, be of assistance, then he was going to do everything in his power to help, no matter how much his father wasn't going to like it.

Sighing, he rose and went to find his mother. If the family was mustering -- whether for a search and rescue mission or for war -- he would need her help to answer the call to arms.

　

**Author's Note:**

> Once I have everyone in Egypt, the pace of the story will pick up.


End file.
